Improvement in croquet-scoring apparatus



W. B. LEWIS. Croquet sooring Apparatus.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

WILLIAM B. LENIS, OF BROOKLYN, NElV YORK.

IMPROVEMENT lN CROQUET-SCORlNG APPARATUS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 212,020, dated February 4, 1879; application filed March 29, 1878.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, \VILLIAM B. LEWIS, of the city of Brooklyn, county of Kings, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Perforated Uroquet-Scorer, for recordin the transactions and points of play comprised in the game of croquet, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the aceompanyin g drawings, in which- A represents a tablet; 13, difi'erently-coh ored stripes U, differently-colored pegs; and D, perforations.

The game to which my invention relates has for its operation certain implements, consistin g of balls, mallets, and stakes, painted with various colors; also arches or hoops, through which the balls are driven by mallets in the passage of said balls from stake to stake.

The transactions and points of play referred to above are, first, the striking of one ball with another, commonly called croqueting a ball 5 second, the arch or stake for which each ball in play is destined and the direction it must take, whether going from or returning to the startingpoint; third, the rotation or turn in play of each ball used in the game.

The invention consists of the following ele ments and the combination thereof:

First-J. Pegs or knobs of wood, or other material of which they can be made, painted with various colors, and similar in color with, and as many in number ofeach color as, the croquet-balls used in the game. These pegs represent the hall 11. Two larger pegs, one of them smaller than the other, the large one to represent the home-stake or starting-point, the smaller one the lower stake or turning-point of croquet.

Seeond i. A piece of wood or other material having a flat surface. Upon a portion of this surface are painted horizontal stripes, of various colors, parallel with each other, these to be similar in. number and color to the crequet-balls, and to represent the active balls, thatstrikeotherballs. Througheachstripe,aud into the material at intervals from each other, are bored perforations, one less in number than thewholc number of stripes. The small painted pegs, when placed in these perforations, represent passive balls that have been struck, or

that balls corresponding to them in color have been struck by balls similar in color to the painted stripes wherein they are inserted.

11. Below these stripes is a group of double lines of perforations, said double lines in number equal to the arches used in croquet; also at either end of this group a single line of perforations, and adjoining each of the latter one perforation; the number of separate perforations in each, both of the double and single lines, similar in number to the croquet-balls. The narrow space between the double lines represents the arch of croquet, and the perforations on either side of this space the front and rear face of the arch. The small pegs, when inserted in either of these double lines, will show that balls corresponding to them in color must pass through that arch in a direc tion indicated by the next nearest line of per forations on the other side of the space representing the arch. In the single lines of per forations, at either end of the group of double lines when the small pegs are inserted, theyindicate the approach of balls to the stakes, which stakes are represented by large pegs, to be placed in the single perforations immediately adjoinin III. At the right-hand corner of the scorer is a row of perforations, equal in number to the painted stripes. The small pegs, when in sorted in this row, will indicate the rotation in play of each ball used in the game.

1V. Upon the lower portion of the scorer is a large group of perforations, in number as many as will contain all the small pegs when not in use.

In operatingmyinvcntion in connection with a game of croquet- First. The large pegs are placed in their re spcctive positions upon the scorer, arranging themv as may be most convenient with respect to the positions of the home and turning stake upon the croquet-ground.

Second. Then small pegs corresponding to the balls selected by the players mustbe placed in the perforations to the right of the painted stripes, the colors being arranged in the rot. tion as agreed upon. These pegs will show the order of play, and if, as the game progresses, a ball is put out and the corresponding peg is withdrawn, the pegs on either side of the gap thus made will still indicate balls which play in succession.

Third. Then as each ball, in turn, is driven through the arches, starting from the homestake, and finally fails to make an arch or stake, a small peg the color of the ball must be placed in that line of perforations representing the front of the arch or stake so missed. This peg will show the arch or stake the ball must make, and, as before mentioned, the direction it must take.

Fourth. When a croqueting takes place it must be recorded in the manner hereinbefore described.

I am aware that devices for scoring the game of croquet and recording the transactions of pose specified. I Y

WILLIAM B. LEWIS. Witnesses:

JACOB FRoUNn, GEORGE W. SHAFFER. 

